Five more games in the last week have taken me up to 157 for the season and 5,489 all told. The results were: Sporting Bengal 1 Thamesmead 7, Bexhill 4 Bosham 1, Eastbourne Revolution 4 Bridge Inn 2, Barkingside 3 Basildon 1 and Crown & Manor 1 Origin 3.
In late February I saw Sporting Bengal lose 7-1 at home to Sevenoaks after collapsing in the last ten minutes. Last Wednesday I was back at Mile End Stadium and by way of a complete contrast Sporting lost 7-1 to Thamesmead after collapsing in the last ten minutes.
The floodlighting was even dimmer than usual as I felt my way along a row of seats. There seemed to be a lot of people in the stand – I counted 45 – but some of them could have been shadows. Two or three minutes into the game the referee realised there were no corner flags.
I made my first visit to The Polegrove, home to Bexhill United, a couple of weeks after my parents moved to the seaside town in 1984. Peter Heritage scored a hat-trick (I think) in a 9-0 win against Crowborough. I was at the same venue on Saturday and somewhat taken aback to see Peter, now 47, leading the Bexhill attack.
He played League football for Gillingham, Hereford and Doncaster, and has enough know-how and skill on the ball to be an asset to a club pushing for promotion to the Sussex County League’s Division Two. They won’t catch Loxwood, but they could certainly sneak up on Haywards Heath.
Ernie "The Tank" Watkins? Well, since you ask, he was 48 when I saw him play centre-half for Banstead in an FA Amateur Cup tie at Croydon in the ‘60s. They lost 4-1 but he scored with a lob from inside his own half. He was probably 70 yards from goal.
There was the traditional overnight downpour in Eastbourne, so Sunday morning’s games were once again in doubt. I made the long trek to Old Town Rec and was delighted to see some players in black and white striped shirts emerging from the changing rooms.
The game, on the middle of three pitches, turned out to be Eastbourne Revolution v Bridge Inn in the Lewes & District Sunday League’s Division Three. The only thing missing was a proper referee and the reason for that was to become clear.
The groundsman had apparently called all the games off at 7.30 and his assistant, clutching a ladder, was now marching towards the pitch with a view to taking the nets down. "They shouldn’t be playing", he told me as we stood together behind one goal. I convinced him that the ground was nowhere near waterlogged and that no lasting damage was being done to the surface.
He didn’t need much persuading. "There’s 22 of them and only one of me", he said.